Detective Chinatown II

The movie expands on the world building of Crime Detectives with a Ranking app for worldwide case solving. Our young lead is currently #2 (and still a genius), while his uncle/cousin is more annoying than he was in the first story.. But without him, the movie would not have taken place, as he ropes the lead into solving a case for money. He isn't as useless this time around.. but still clashed with my expectations for the sequel as soon as he appeared.

Many other Detectives from the Ranking App show up for a bit of competition, and a race to find the culprit begins!

I have to say that the mystery, this time around, isn't as well written or interesting.. which is quite a detriment. The jokes are less funny. And somethings that happened "dumbed down the reality" in which they inhabit.

Anyway, Since the first movie was a Chinese production filmed completely in Thailand's Chinatown, it only makes sense that the sequel takes place in New York's Chinatown. It is, again, a seemingly-high budgeted movie with great production value! But WOW, am I torn on it's quality! It is highly interesting at times.. And it is comically DUMB and BAD at others. The tonal disparity is just too large, making the movie a mess.. enough for me not to want to recommend it at all. And the same applies to the cast! There are some REALLY good characters, but many others that are terrible!!! Shang Yu Xian was my favorite character, and a good addition to the movie for obvious reasons. Michael Pitt was one of the worst, whom I've never really liked in anything he's been.. like his disappointing role as Mason Verger in Hannibal.

... But what I liked, I really liked. And strangely enough, I can't wait to see the third entry! As of now, I can't say I understand why it is as popular.. but I hope not to be (more) disappointed.

Grand scale, liable actors and actresses but way too many plot holes and meaningless lines and scenes makes Detective Chinatown 2 a major letdown. Part of what made the first movie work was the grittiness of Thailand sort of matches the two leads of the film, it really accentuates their personality and helps with the flow of the film. But setting it in New York, and using all the landmarks of the city, it really requires something that befitting in an artistic and storyline sense, and the film fails to deliver in that sense. Character motives and story progression is all over the place in the film, although the film does sort of lines everything up towards the end, the journey was already taken by viewers and it was not pretty. Also would have liked them to explain and elaborate on how Tang Ren got to New York in the first place. It just feels the movie was hastily made, and that the Are York and the entire story was added in last second without too much deliberation. The characters and concept works, as it was shown in the first film, but execution really needs to be improved if the franchise is to continue to move forward.

The first hour was pure fun perfectly balancing the comedy and the mystery the next half hour dragged a bit when it tried to look serious but instead kind of looked stupid and the last hour was quite ridiculous. Even with all of that and a string of jokes that just uses stereotypes it was superfun with great 2 lead performances.

I heard that the third film in the series was massive in china at launch so i fancied getting a taste of what another country loved.

The energy in this film is insane and it looked like everyone involved in it had a blast as well. I've not laughed so many times in a long time. Comedy, over the top characters and slapstick chases should not work with a murder mystery film. But somehow it's a perfect combination. If you can cope with subtitles and like to see something a little different, watch this film. You wont be disapointed.

While I wasn't overly impressed with 2015 movie "Detective Chinatown", then I did sit down to watch the sequel "Detective Chinatown 2" (aka "Tang Ren Jie Tan An 2") here in 2022 simply because I had the opportunity to do so.

And who knew, maybed writers Sicheng Chen, Yining Yan, Lian Zhou, Chun Zhang, Jiake Cheng and Lifeng Gao would up the game for this 2018 sequel. Truth be told, I wasn't really harboring much of any expectations to the movie though, but I was open for being entertained and possibly surprised.

I am surprised, sure, but not because of the entertainment value of the movie. No. I am surprised with the fact that six writers could not collectively manage to churn out something more entertaining or enjoyable than they did. In fact, "Tang Ren Jie Tan An 2" was just about at the same level of entertainment as the 2015 predecessor. But hey, that's good news for the fans of the first movie, but not so much for those of us that weren't swayed.

The storyline in "Tang Ren Jie Tan An 2" takes place in New York this time, more specifically mostly in the Chinatown district of New York. Perhaps it is because I am not overly keen on solving murder mysteries that the movie wasn't all that impressive or entertaining to me. The writers sort of take you on a trip that goes everywhere, but doesn't necessarily feel complete.

The movie does have a good cast ensemble, and it certainly was nice to see the likes of Kenneth Tsang, Wah Yuen and Bai Ling make appearances in the movie, despite of them having minor roles only.

For a movie like "Tang Ren Jie Tan An 2" with comedy elements to it, I have to admit that I only laughed a single time, and it was when the horse pulling the cart got tranquilized.

I found "Tang Ren Jie Tan An 2" to be sort of a missed opportunity, and it was a shame that the writers didn't bring more solid and entertaining material to the table, because director Sicheng Chen just didn't have an abundance to work with.

My rating of the 2018 sequel "Tang Ren Jie Tan An 2" lands on a four out of ten stars.